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My blog has developed out of a desire to recapture and remember the experiences in my life that have inspired me and driven me to discover and learn, the people along the way that have shared their knowledge and passion and the many friends who have encouraged me to share these experiences.

I was blessed with an upbringing in which my parents were avid cooks and gardeners growing all manner of vegetables organically all year round. My father instilled in me early on a love of foraging. I remember Saturday mornings in early Autumn picking our way through fields in our Wellies, learning by his side as he helped me overcome my fear of cows, as they were always curious, and teaching me how to recognise which mushrooms to pick. We picked blackberries from the hedgerows, wild fennel from the fields and seaweed and shellfish off the rocks, as I was also his fishing partner.

I thrive on texture and colour, seasonal variation and fresh locally grown produce. I treasure the smell of my garden after rain and looking across to the national park to see the mist rising through the trees. Picking fresh porcini’s in a forest behind San Gimignano and meeting the wonderful organic berry farmers in the Huon Valley outside Hobart. Making fresh ricotta and splitting it with the sap from a twig from my fig tree and discovering handmade Damascus carbon steel knives. Sourcing organic pasture fed venison and exploring ever more creative ways to eat according to a Paleo lifestyle.

Along the way, Christopher Lloyd’s book Gardener Cook and his adventurous and whitty approach to combining his two passions, Antonio Carluccio and his love of foraging for mushrooms and Nigel Slater’s way with words, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s total passion for local produce and watching Monty Don wheelbarrowing his vegetables straight into his kitchen, have sustained me. 

I can’t describe the excitement I feel when developing gardens or laying out all the wonderful produce after a trip to the local growers markets of a saturday morning followed by an excuse to check out my library for inspiration and an afternoon spent cooking and developing a recipe for the evening meal. 

For so long I have been resistant to all things technical. When a dear friend recently suggested an iPad, to help with my convalescence, I was introduced to the world of blogging not to mention Instagram and Pinterest, I was hooked. It has been quite a journey these past two years, not knowing what a blog was to now having my own! Of late this has included the joy of learning how to properly photograph and capture the experience. 

It has been a marvelous journey so far, I can’t wait to see what the next chapter entails.